Tag Archives: Sigmund Ausfresser

ProTrader, Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: Long Term Buys – The New World Order?

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A number of general strategies have tended to pay off on Wall Street over the past century. You know the type – diversify, buy what you know, focus on top and bottom line growth, be greedy when others are fearful, etc. While never guarantees, following these guidelines will generally lead you towards better, more consistent financial reward when investing.

Some MTG finance strategies parallel that of Wall Street. In Magic there’s still benefit to diversification, for example. There are also unique strategies worth noting for this hobby in particular – pay close attention to Standard rotation, make note of when Modern season begins, buy and hold Power for the long term, etc.

But not all adages echoed across MTG financiers are permanent truths. Sometimes confirmation bias (a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions) can cloud judgment and lead to incorrect conclusions. Even some of the most tried and true hypotheses can’t be confirmed as general investing truth due to the dynamic environment we’re in today.

This week I will touch upon a couple investing fallacies that I’ve personally bumped into recently, and how I’m shifting my investment strategy accordingly. I also haver a hypothetical question that will really shake up people’s mindset (well, maybe).

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: Closing the Arbitrage Gaps

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It couldn’t have been all my doing. At least, not directly. Whether or not I sparked action is a separate matter.

Of course I’m talking about recent arbitrage opportunities. Many that I have cited in the past have dried up, especially on stuff like Alpha and Beta.

But I’m sure it didn’t take much to impact market pricing on older and more obscure cards. When a store is trying to stock up on near mint Alpha rares, it doesn’t take more than a copy or two to motivate them to drop their buy prices. Even giants like Star City Games can’t possibly want to sink more than a couple hundred dollars into stuff like Alpha Chaoslace.

Chaoslace

As a result, previous blanket statements I’ve made in the past no longer hold true. Since I wrote an article on Alpha and Beta buy lists a couple months ago I’ve noticed many price cuts at Star City Games and, more notably, Channel Fireball. When I noticed strong buy lists I made sure to cite them for our ProTraders. Now that trends reversed some, I wanted to make sure I doubled back to this topic to provide a timely update.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

ProTrader, Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: A Seller’s Market

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A week ago, I wrote about the ho-hum results of the Pro Tour. The professional players who made the top eight were incredible, with a vast history of experience and success. But the decks themselves were lackluster, to put it bluntly. Nothing on Sunday really excited me from an MTG finance perspective.

As a result, I was disappointed to make only tiny profits on the few Pro Tour purchases I actually did make throughout the weekend. Looking at the one-week interests on mtgstocks.com, it seems likely I’m not the only one starting at a financially inconsequential event.

Interests

This picture outlines the top movers over the past week. It’s true there are a handful of Standard cards in the list, but look at their actual price appreciation. Bloodsoaked Champion was the big winner, but do you think there’s much profit in buying copies at $2.33 and selling at $3.22? Doubtful. The same can be said for other top weekly performers, such as Hidden Dragonslayer, Secure the Wastes, and Crackling Doom. Put simply, if you hadn’t purchased these cards a few days before the Pro Tour, you weren’t really going to profit.

Count me in that camp.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: Invisible Hand Hard at Work

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My name is Sigmund and I’m a capitalist. I believe in the Invisible Hand and all the dictates of supply and demand in the realm of MTG finance. This means I embrace all the positives – and inevitable negatives – of such a system.

I’ve been hearing many disgruntled voices lately berating one body of people or another for their business practices. Wizards of the Coast is executing sets poorly by mismanaging print runs and introducing new “rarities” via Expeditions. Local game stores are unfairly price gouging on new products when they receive less supply than anticipated. Even Hasbro cannot escape the pitchforks, receiving blame for manipulating Wizards and poorly executing an online gaming platform.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I’m not going to sit here and decry that everyone needs to embrace capitalism as I have. But everyone should at least be aware of the underlying drivers that have gotten us into certain pricing situations. And if you take away nothing from this article but one thing, I hope that one thing is simply that there isn’t a single body to blame for certain pricing behaviors. Oh, and you may learn a thing or two about MTG economics along the way.

Ready for another off-the-beaten-path type of finance column? Here we go!

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.